A Front Row Seat to Rock’s Golden Age

Today, rock photographer Bob Gruen possesses a deep and valuable catalog of the iconic images he captured, from John Lennon posing in a “New York City” T-shirt to the Ramones schlepping their guitars on the subway. But back in the 1970s, when Gruen was hustling from one freelance assignment to the next, one of his most important assets was an old car.

“A ’54 Buick Special that I got for $300,” he recalls. When the Clash first came to New York, for instance, Gruen got the ultimate access as the rockers’ friend, photographer and de facto chauffer. “I was one of the few people they knew, and I had a great car. We had a lot of fun in it.”

At age 66 and 40 years after Ike and Tina Turner gave him his first big break, Gruen still shoots, but spends more of his professional time giving lectures and monetizing his archives. An exhibition of his photographs, including shots of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, opened yesterday at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. In September, he released a retrospective book covering 40 years of photos, “Rock Seen.”